Disney has made some major changes to their schedule for the next three years...
The biggest news out of all of this is that Pirates of the Caribbean 5 has been set for July 10, 2015, or a little over four years after On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp has announced he will return, no director is attached but a screenplay writer has been hired. 2015 also already has The Avengers 2, The Smurfs 3 and DreamWorks Animations' Trolls on the calendar for that particular summer.
Disney also has set The Muppets 2 for March 21, 2014. The sequel will arrive a little over two years after The Muppets was a decent-sized hit. Director James Bobin and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller have returned and filming will begin later this month in London. Jason Segel and Amy Adams will not return. Instead, a new cast, headed by Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell will lead the film. The Muppets 2 will have to compete against DreamWorks Animation's Me and My Shadow and the adventure adaptation Noah for audiences over the end of the Spring season.
The other major scheduling addition was Brad Bird's 1952 for December 19, 2014. The epic sci-fi film is expected to star George Clooney. Being in the lowest states of development for years, Bird (who directed The Incredibles and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) is probably planning to shoot the film later this year.
The live-action fairy tale twist Maleficent has been moved to July 2, 2014 (it was originally slated for March 14, 2014). Angelina Jolie will play the titular character, the evil fairy from Disney's classic, Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent will face off against the second weekend of the highly-anticipated Transformers 4 as well as the third weekend of DreamWorks' How To Train Your Dragon 2 and the final Hobbit movie, There And Back Again, two weeks after its' release.
With the diminishing returns for 3D re-issues, Disney has removed The Little Mermaid 3D from their calendar. That's actually saddening because it really would've done well (since it hadn't been on DVD in years).
In non-Disney release date announcements, Universal has set Jurassic Park 4 for June 13, 2014. The highly-anticipated continuation of the blockbuster trilogy will return Steven Spielberg as an executive producer.
